In a typical optical transmission system, an electrical source drives an electrical-to-optical converter through a band-limited interconnect channel. For example, an electrical transmitter may be coupled to an electrical-to-optical converter via one or more traces of a circuit board formed of FR4 or another type of material.
A problem associated with such an arrangement is that the jitter on the output optical signal can increase due to effects of the interconnect channel and properties of the electrical-to-optical converter. Optical transmission systems designed to operate in accordance with well-known optical communications standards, such as the synchronous optical network (SONET) and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) standards, may specify a maximum amount of jitter that is considered acceptable for a given output optical signal. It is therefore particularly important in conventional optical transmission systems that the interconnect channel be of high quality, in order to maintain signal integrity and meet jitter specification requirements at the optical output.
Unfortunately, maintaining a high quality interconnect channel in an optical transmission system either adds cost by requiring more costly high performance materials, or it constrains the physical configuration and distance over which system components can be interconnected leading to lower density solutions or less flexible physical designs.
Accordingly, what is needed is a technique for providing a desired level of output optical signal jitter in an optical transmission system, in a manner which does not add significant cost to the system or unduly constrain the physical configuration and distance over which system components can be interconnected.